Q about Dimarzio Super Distortion

[Peter Naglitsch]

Got a beater guitar in today with a broken pickup. The guitar is a worthless, 70s low low low budget LP knockoff piece of s***t. But the pickups looked a bit familiar. It was a crème HB with Allen head adjustable pole pieces. And sure. When I took the faulty pickup out it had DiMarzio stamped on the back. Did a bit reading up and it is indeed an original 70s DiMarzio Super Distortion with the square tabs for mounting to the mounting ring.

One of the coils was shorted out, probably due to the hack that had intended to rewire it. So I got the coil off and saw one thin that really made me confused. There was a monster of ceramic magnet there, probably as thick as 1/4”. But there was a thin steel shim between the magnet and the pole pieces!!! I wish I had thought about taking a picture when the pickup was apart. Does anyone know if that steel shim is original?

BTW, the coils were wound to 6.45 Kohms with 43AWG, roughly 7000 turns, about 90 TPL. The gauss went off the scale of my cheepo R B Annis gauss meter, so I cannot give that data.

[Dr. Guitar]

I took apart an unidentifiable (model wise that is)Dimarzio with the steel shim in it. I would assume that it is original. The "Air" pick ups have some sort of spacer on the magnet too.

[GlennW]

There's something like what you described in mine, so I guess so. I bought it new so it's original.

[Peter Naglitsch]

Thanks guys. I guess that the shim is there because DiMarzio couldn’t find wide enough ceramic magnets at that time. Interesting, as I have never read about that shim before. I thought that it should have been mentioned somewhere, but anyway….

And the Air pickups have a plastic retainer or magnet holder that separate the magnet from the steel slugs and screws. As I have understood it is to “tame” the magnetic field a bit. Almost like degaussing a magnet. The steel shim works in a completely different way if I’m not completely mistaken.

[GlennW]

I know it's been a while...do you remember the winding direction?

[David Schwab]

I know it's been a while...do you remember the winding direction?

I've unwound a bunch of these over the years... I have no idea. I'd do it just like it's a Gibson or whatever way your winder turns.

[GlennW]

I tried how Jason said in his book using an analog Ohmmeter and it looked like CCW, but I'm not sure because the needle jumped just before the pieces connect. I'll try it that way.

[Peter Naglitsch]

It’s been a while all right… geeee….I’m not actually sure which way is CCW and CW. I mounted the bobbin in my winder to unwind it…and the face plate/bobbin turned in the CCW direction as I pulled the wire. Does that make it a CW or CCW winding?

[GlennW]

I think CCW as long as the top of the pickup was facing out. Thanks.

[Peter Naglitsch]

Yeah, bobbin top out so that the wire was wound in a CCW direction.